Scrutinize Your Storage
Smart Storage Strategies Include Extensive Examinations Into What Data Should Be Kept

By Christian Perry
Processor Magazine, July 17th, 2009

For modern organizations, data is like snow in a Colorado winter: It just keeps coming. But although snow eventually melts, data can hang around eternally, consuming huge amounts of storage and leaving managers scrambling to find yet another spot to squeeze in more. Huge enterprises with limitless budgets can address data storage simply by keeping everything, but smaller data centers often must be increasingly picky with the data they back up.

“Organizations very much struggle with this issue today,” says Mike Holland, systems engineer for Eternus CS at Fujitsu America (www.fujitsu.com/us). “It is important to remember that backup and archiving are not always the most important items in a CIO’s annual plan, and, as a result, lack of emphasis and/or lack of budget influences activity in this area.”

Discovery Process

According to Carl Herberger, vice president of information security and compliance services at Evolve IP (www.evolveip.net), even the best-run companies with access to world-class analysis and assessment talents can struggle with decisions surrounding data storage. In general, he says, data centers either keep all data for the same amount of time and treat all data the same or adopt a differentiation policy for varying types of data and designate separate retention periods for them. However, even though the latter process inherently implies a data classification schema, a closer look often exposes a lack of a formal system...

Read the full article online here at Processor Magazine: Scrutinize Your Storage